March 2015

“People who live the most fulfilling lives are the ones who are always rejoicing at what they have.” – Richard Carlson

This week, I want to share with you the wise coaching of Susan Smith Jones, Ph.D., a dynamic writer and speaker who shares with her audience a wide array of fun and effective tools for achieving vibrant health and prosperity.

Susan has mastered the art of abundant living in ALL aspects, and she knows it takes much more than just financial abundance to create a happy and fulfilling life. My favorite book of hers is Choose to Live Each Day Fully: A 365-Day Guide to Transforming Your Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary.

I hope her simple, wise, and very practical suggestions will inspire you to expand your capacity to receive abundance by focusing on being good to yourself each and every day.

From Choose to Live Each Day Fully

By Susan Smith Jones, Ph.D.

Day 85: Boosting Your Self-Esteem

“How you feel about yourself affects all aspects of your life – whether you are happy, peaceful, successful, and fulfilled in life. Here are some of the key ingredients to loving yourself and thus making your life a celebration.

Take loving care of your body. Eat healthy food and exercise regularly. Think of your body as more than pounds of flesh and tissue; treat your body as the miracle it is and with love and respect.

Count your blessings. Look at all the positive aspects about your body and life and write them down so you can see them all the time. Make a list of all the things for which you are grateful: your eyes which show you beauty, your hands which let you touch, your children, your spouse and friends, the flowers in your yard, or the park down the street.

Be patient and trust.Everything happens in the proper timing. Trust that all will unfold for your highest good. Be patient with yourself and choose to live one day at a time.

Today’s affirmation: I like and value myself very much.

Day 86: Boosting Your Self-Esteem II

Be here now. Live in the present moment and with as much love in your heart as possible. All you ever truly have is this present moment, your moment of power.

Let go of all criticism. Be loving and kind towards yourself and release all criticism. When you catch yourself being judgmental and critical, stop and think of something positive. At least once a day, look in your mirror and take one minute to praise and support yourself.

Be of service to others.One of the fastest ways to feel better about yourself is to do something nice for another person. It could be as simple as giving someone a hug, cooking a meal for a sick neighbor, giving your time watching a friend’s child so he or she can have some time off, or sending a card saying how much you appreciate another. In giving to others, we give to ourselves.

Live in the presence of love. There is nothing that will transform your life more quickly than living with a consistent feeling of love in your heart. For the next twenty-four hours maintain a consistent feeling of love; your entire life will change for the better and will be enriched. It’s not very easy. Keep practicing and see how long you can go.

Today’s affirmation: I treat myself to the very best; I deserve it.”

This week, I hope you will practice one or more of Susan Smith Jones’s wonderful suggestions for enhanced self-esteem and abundant, healthy living. Focusing on even ONE of these guidelines will produce a noticeable increase in your mental, emotional and physical vibrancy and happiness!

****************** The Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ********************

I invite you to offer someone you care about a truly unique gift that can change their life — ONE HOUR of Personal Success Coaching! It is absolutely F*R*E*E* of charge, with no obligation and no strings attached! And if YOU haven’t coached with me in awhile and would like a “tune up” session please give yourself this gift!

To schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help clarify your Big Goals and get you into ACTION to make this the BEST year yet, please email me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or call toll-free 888-503-8145.

“Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles Kettering

I believe that any Big Goal is possible to achieve, no matter what anyone else says or how improbably short the timeframe may seem. However, if you want to harness the power of the Law of Attraction (“energy attracts like energy”) to help you reach your goals with greater speed and ease, you must learn to distinguish empowering “Possibility Thinking” from mere “Pie in the Sky” wishful daydreaming.

Are Your Beliefs Supporting You?

A vital aspect of Practical Prosperity Coaching ™ is helping my clients to recognize when they are holding unconscious Limiting Beliefs about their Big Goal. A Limiting Belief is a limitation we automatically, unconsciously place on what we think is possible to achieve. We must remember that our beliefs are not the “Truth,” but simply our interpretation of the facts, based on our own past experience or someone else’s. A Limiting Belief holds you back from pursuing a Big Goal, while an Empowering Belief encourages you to go after it with gusto.

Working daily with the Law of Attraction over the past 10 + years to manifest my own Big Goals and help over 500 coaching clients manifest theirs, I have come to believe that Big Goals ARE possible to achieve, with one important caveat: You must be willing to do three things in order to put the Law of Attraction into action to make the seemingly “impossible” possible. Unless you are willing to follow these three “Keys to Success,” you are simply fantasizing that your Big Goal is going to magically drop from the heavens onto your plate. Believe me, it won’t.

Don’t Buy Others’ Limiting Beliefs about Your Goal

One of my past clients demonstrated in textbook fashion how following these three Keys to Success can help you manifest any Big Goal in record time. “Dorothy” was a young professional with a high-paying day job who dreamed of turning her part-time business into a full-time career. Her compelling “Why” for pursuing this Big Goal was a strong desire to spend more time with her new husband than her intense day job allowed, while still maintaining a good income.

After analyzing her Network Marketing company’s pay plan, she determined that reaching the Director Level would enable her to quit her day job and start living the life she dreamed of. When we began coaching, she had just 30 days left to reach Director by the fastest, easiest route. After that, the requirements became much tougher, so she decided to go for it that month with everything she had.

Her well-meaning upline Leaders told her that “statistically” she would have to talk to 100 people about the products and/or the business opportunity in order to reach her Big Goal. She knew she could not realistically expect to do her 50-60 hour a week job AND talk to 100 prospects in 30 days.

So, I asked her to challenge the Limiting Belief that she absolutely MUST talk to 100 people in order to get the business partners and product sales volume required to reach Director. I reminded her that this statistic was simply an “average” of what it had taken other consultants to reach this goal. I asked her whether she thought it was possible for one individual to do better than “average” and she said, “Yes.” Then if it is possible, did she believe that she could actually do it? “Of course!” she replied. Supported by her new Empowering Belief that she was capable of producing results that were far above “average,” she set out to fulfill each of the three Keys to Success for reaching a Big Goal.

The Three Keys to Success in Manifesting

Success Key #1: Use ALL available tools to their full advantage. We created her personalized Daily Success Script ™ and she began repeating it aloud twice a day for about 10 minutes each. She understood that the purpose of the Success Script was to build her belief that she could do it, give her the right energy to attract the right prospects to her, and open her subconscious mind to come up with inspired new shortcuts to lead her to her goal. She did her Success Script twice each day like clockwork, never making an excuse that she had forgotten or fallen asleep or didn’t have it with her when she needed it. She recognized that success requires Integrity and she kept her word that she would use every tool I provided to help her reach her Big Goal.

Success Key #2: Be Strategic. You do not need to know HOW you are going to reach your Big Goal before you can begin to pursue it. But you do have to take any and all Action Steps that you can right NOW, trusting that more guidance will be provided as you move forward. Taking action demonstrates that you really ARE committed to manifesting your Big Goal. That commitment energy attracts the ideal resources, people and serendipitous opportunities that will help guide you to it.

I asked Dorothy which people on her prospect list she thought had the BEST chance of saying “Yes” quickly. She said, The ones I’ve already talked to at least once. The time wasn’t right for them before, but it might be NOW.” She decided to call them again and simply ask, “Is NOW a good time for you to try the products risk-free and/or join me in the business?”

This strategy worked very well. When she told her friends about her Big Goal, quite a few were willing to help her by placing an order right then. A few even decided to jump into the business at last. She got through her “follow up” list much faster than she would have making initial calls and having to explain the products or the business. She strategically went after the “low hanging fruit” and it paid off.

Success Key #3: Use your available time wisely. Especially when pursuing a goal with a tight timeframe, it’s critical to get into action quickly and work smart throughout. Dorothy didn’t have a lot of hours available, but she made every minute count. She talked to coworkers and made calls on her lunch hour, made more calls in the evenings, and asked several friends to host two or three home presentations on the weekends and invite their friends to come. And when she did those presentations, she was amazed at the unexpectedly high ratio of guests who approached her afterward to ask how they could get into the business too.

Just before midnight on the last day of the month, Dorothy signed up her final business builder and placed her final order and was promoted to Director. When she ran her stats, she discovered that her personal success ratio for prospecting that month turned out to be much higher than either the company “average” or her own past experience.

At her company’s annual convention, Dorothy received a special award for reaching Director Level faster than anyone else in her entire region that year. Soon, she quit her day job and continues to enjoy building her business and spending lots of time with her husband.

What approach will YOU take to pursue your own Big Goals — Pie or Possibility?

****************** The Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ********************

I invite you to offer someone you care about a truly unique gift that can change their life — ONE HOUR of Personal Success Coaching! It is absolutely F*R*E*E* of charge, with no obligation and no strings attached! And if YOU haven’t coached with me in awhile and would like a “tune up” session please give yourself this gift!

To schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help clarify your Big Goals and get you into ACTION to make this the BEST year yet, please email me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or call toll-free 888-503-8145.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Nobody likes to fail. No one likes to hear “NO.” But as Mr. Churchill said, “failure is not fatal.” A “NO” that closes one door to a Big Dream will open a door to something EVEN better — if you are willing to stay the course.

At the end of last month, a number of my coaching clients in the same Network Marketing skin care company were going after some exciting incentive goals. Three of these Leaders were within sight of achieving the top sales goal that would win them a trip to an exclusive resort in Mexico.

Unfortunately, what happened to all of them just days before the end of the contest was that several customers they had counted on for an order and potential business partners who had promised to sign up that month told them “No.” When those doors unexpectedly slammed in their faces, they each got a precious gift: The chance to see what they were really made of as Leaders and role models for their Teams. Were they going to fold just short of the goal line or were they going to find a way to do it anyway?

I kept coaching them from the sidelines, reminding them to keep their belief strong and Expect the Best. Their commitment was to winning the contest, not being attached to a specific “How.” They kept their focus on the goal and all of them experienced some delightful mini-miracles at the 11th hour. Being unstoppable, they got creative and did things like calling customers who had already ordered that month and asked them if there was anything else they might like … And several said “Yes”!

But even more gratifying, some brand new customers spontaneously reached out to THEM saying, “It’s time to get some things for my Mom” or “I am finally ready to join your business now.” All three of them reached their Big Goal in the last hours of the month and felt elated, amazed and triumphant as they did!

If they had given up when their own Plan A didn’t work out, they would have missed the opportunity to grow as Leaders, deepen their faith and marvel at the perfect Plan “B” (for “Better”) that God/The Universe had cooked up for them. Their personal growth would not have occurred from taking the predictable path to success.

Another client had a similar experience with an even bigger-stakes goal. A good friend promised her several years ago that when he retired, he would sell her his house “as is” at a below-market price. The housing market in her area is very expensive and quite competitive, so this looked like the best chance for her to fulfill her Big Dream of turning her family from renters into home owners.

Finally, the time had come. The friend was retiring. My client and her husband went over to look at the house and saw that it needed work. The interior had not been renovated much, but it had “good bones” and they planned to fix it up over time as their financial picture improved.

Problem was, the friend’s wife understandably wanted to make sure they got what the house was worth for their retirement, so she consulted a Realtor and learned they could get $60,000 MORE for it than the price her husband had promised to my client. So the friend said he was very sorry, but he had to renege on his offer, unless of course, they had the extra $60,000? Nope.

To top it off, the very same day, the owner of the house her family is renting told them she was going to sell too, and they had just 60 days to move out!

HUGE door slam in the face, right? At first, my client was understandably hurt by the “back stabbing” friend and shocked that God/The Universe had let them get into a situation like this. But she quickly got back into her rock-solid BELIEF and re-focused her energy on her Big Goal of home ownership. She and her husband found a great Realtor of their own, who immediately introduced them to a lender that offered them a much bigger loan than they thought they were qualified for. They started looking at better houses right away, all the while packing up their rental home.

They really liked the first property they saw. It was much newer and nicer than the friend’s house and seemed like a good fit for their family’s needs. They put in an offer right away…and were immediately outbid by $10,000. Yet, my client never wavered in her faith, but kept expecting something EVEN better to come their way.

It did. They found a second house that was better than the one they just lost out on, with lots of desirable amenities and a lovely yard. They offered over asking price and while they waited for a response, they went to see yet another property that had just come on the market. It was located between two streets that were BOTH named for her daughter – one her given name and one her nickname!

Elated, she texted me, “I felt so comfortable the minute I walked in. This is my Dream Home!” So they put in a second offer on that one, too, and waited anxiously to hear back. Their agent tried to reach the listing agent, but got no response for several days. In the meantime, their offer on the other house was accepted. I thought, “Well, then that is the one that must be the BEST for them because that is what God/The Universe guided them to.”

She was happy they were getting a nice home, but her heart still REALLY yearned for the Dream Home between the streets named after her daughter. She kept claiming “The Best” would work out for them and visualizing her family living happily in that home. She never gave up on her strong belief that it was meant for her family.

Finally, the same day they were about to sign the deal on the other house, the “silent” listing agent contacted her agent to say that the owners of her #1 Dream Home had accepted their offer. They got everything they wanted at $30,000 LESS than the other house. Escrow will close exactly when they need to move from their rental. Within two weeks, my client went from being a displaced renter to becoming a thrilled home OWNER — never imagining it could happen so quickly or perfectly for them.

This is what I have seen play out time and again in my own life and the lives of over 500 coaching clients I have been privileged to help reach their dreams during the past 10 + years: NO is not the end of the line. NO is just the start of something even better. As Winston Churchill also once said, we must “Never, never, never give up.”

****************** The Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ********************

I invite you to offer someone you care about a truly unique gift that can change their life — ONE HOUR of Personal Success Coaching! It is absolutely F*R*E*E* of charge, with no obligation and no strings attached! And if YOU haven’t coached with me in awhile and would like a “tune up” session please give yourself this gift!

To schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help clarify your Big Goals and get you into ACTION to make this the BEST year yet, please email me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com or call toll-free 888-503-8145.